


Needs

by SQ (proteinscollide)



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-01
Updated: 2011-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-22 02:11:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/proteinscollide/pseuds/SQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Food, sleep, employment, achievement. Mike's climbing the pyramid, one level at a time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Needs

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to 1.06

Before – in a time he sometimes thinks of as BGH in his head (before goddamn _Harvey_ ) - Mike’s world was bound by a triangle between his apartment, Trevor’s loft and the nursing home his grandmother’s in. Everything he needed was contained within – twice weekly visits to his grandmother, Trevor and his weed, burgers and pizzas from the joint down the street when they got the munchies, desperate NYU students needing 3,000 words on Brecht and modernism in twentieth century drama.

And somehow it all coalesced and made up a life. Not the life he’d been dreaming of as a kid, but there were responsibilities and immediate needs and the somewhat crooked means to fulfil those responsibilities and needs; and if he needed to smoke himself into a lull until he could no longer feel the constant gnawing need in his belly, well, maybe that was what it took to be a functioning adult.

Okay, Mike had taken Psych 101 in his one semester of college, he knew that he wasn’t even close to being self-actualised, but fuck Maslow. Maybe this endless loop of mediocrity was all he could needed, a life of demands so simple, so routine, he could fulfil them in his sleep or stoned out of his mind.

But that was definitely all before Harvey.

“It’s so sweet you think he’s going to see you now, the way you’re looking,” Donna said, getting up swiftly from her desk. She let him get as far as the door this time; then she put one hand up on the glass before he could push it open. “Someday you’re going to learn, right, puppy?”

But she let him in anyway with a sigh. Before he’d taken three steps into the office, Harvey said, “Don’t even bother, not with that suit and tie.” His head was still bent over the folder in his hands, his chair turned away slightly to catch the light from the windows.

“But Harvey, I think I know how to – I stayed up until four this morning but it was worth it – just let me - ” Mike felt rather than heard his words tumbling over each other, but he knew he was onto something, he knew he could crack this case wide open and help Harvey score that win.

“Go home, have a shower, drink at least two cups of decent coffee before you even think about stepping back into this building, and then I’ll decide if what you’ve come up with is worth listening to,” Harvey answered.

“You said it was urgent last night!”

“Nothing so urgent you can’t take the time to look at least human and alive, let alone presentable.” Harvey flicked his eyes up and looked right at Mike. He paused before he added, “I say a lot of things. Your job is to listen and do what I say when I say. My job is, well, it’s whatever the hell I need to do, which most likely does not involve deciphering your incoherent babbling.”

But a little over ten hours later, when they were walking out of the offices of Finnigan and Stockman with just dry signatures on a two million dollar settlement, Harvey patted Mike on the shoulder and said, “Good pick up.”

“Does this mean you’ll start listening to me more often?” Mike said, hands on his hips. He took a step to his left when Harvey walked on without answering him, right in Harvey’s way so he couldn’t get into the town car.

Harvey tilted his head and gave his best _you’re-an-idiot-Mike_ glare. But when that didn’t work, he shrugged lightly and looked Mike up and down, a long slow appraisal.

Mike started blushing when Harvey’s gaze lingered at the hollow of his throat, where he’d loosened his tie a few moments before, and he continued to grow redder and hotter as Harvey’s unabashed attention took him in, all the way down to the hem of his suit and over the leather loafers that had cost half of last month’s paycheck.

“You scrub up nicely. You should do it more often,” Harvey said, a small smile on his lips, moving gently past Mike to get into the car. As he sat down, he raised his eyebrow and said, “It might even get you that attention you so desperately crave from me, if I have something worth looking at while I listen.”

A compliment like that, in Harvey’s voice, well, it made Mike a little hard, a little more eager to please. Added to the pleasure of the knowing Harvey thought he’d done a good job, it tripped that switch inside of him, the one that made him feel like he could get away with anything if he put enough thought and effort in it. The one that let him come to work each day at Pearson Hardman and kick ass, even though it was a life built upon lie upon lie.

“Hey,” Mike said, leaning in as Harvey closed the door behind him. He tapped on the window and Harvey opened it halfway, his handsome face impassive as he looked out at Mike.

“Hey,” he said again, stalling for a second, then he cleared his throat and said in a rush, “If I clean up this well every day, would that buy me your attention outside of work as well? For dinner, maybe?”

Harvey stared at him for what felt like eons in silence. Mike’s brain was starting to catch up to his brain - _oh shit I just came onto my stupidly handsome boss fuck_ – and he slowly uncurled his fingers from the top of the glass pane. He took a step backwards, thinking furiously about how he could pretend the last minute had never happened, when Harvey broke out in loud laughter.

“Oh Mike, you should see your face right now,” Harvey said finally, squeezing out the words between a wheezing laugh, fighting to keep his face under control. “Good try, but with all the things I’ve already let you get away with, dating you would be adding stupid to immoral and illegal to my long list of misdeeds.”

Then Harvey sighed and added, “Also, you’d have to be a hell lot prettier to get that level of attention from me, I’m afraid. And maybe in a slinky short black dress.”

“So you’re flattered and I’m not fired,” Mike said slowly, still vacillating between feeling disappointed and incredibly relieved.

“Yes, and no, you better be at the office tomorrow bright and early.” Harvey shook his head, his eyes bright and still amused as he looked up at Mike again. “And I think that’s my cue to say good night, go home and get some proper rest, Mike.”

“Night,” Mike said softly. He stepped back and patted the side of the car once as it started to leave the kerb, but at the last moment sprinted forward to be alongside the car.

“I’m pretty dammit, and that’s the second time you’ve thought of me in a dress,” he yelled through Harvey’s still open window, ignoring the weird looks from the few people still out at this of night. “And you didn’t actually turn me down!”

He heard rather than saw Harvey’s laugh. “Keep dreaming!” he heard faintly, fondly, before the car sped off into the night.

Mike tucked his hands into his pockets and grinned. Keep dreaming, yeah. Before Harvey, all Mike had a loser best friend who fed his ennui, a wasted intellect, battered hopes. Now he had a great job he was fucking good at (well, most of the time), new friends, and direction – because waiting at the end of each day was the promise of Harvey’s example, his affection, his approval. Something to look forward to, something to dream about.

And that, Mike thought as he walked back to his bike, was something even Maslow could get behind.

END


End file.
